Complete free trade is not politically feasible. Why? Because it's only in the general interest and in no one's special interest.

The world runs on individuals pursuing their self interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn't construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn't revolutionize the automobile industry that way.

Money is a very powerful thing, which you hardly notice when it goes right, but which can create havoc when it goes wrong.

See, if you look at the drug war from a purely economic point of view, the role of the government is to protect the drug cartel. That's literally true.

The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm, capitalism is that kind of a system.

But on the other hand, if you come under circumstances where each person is entitled to a pro-rata share of the pot, to take an extreme example, or even to a low level of the pie, than the effect of that situation is that free immigration, would mean a reduction of everybody to the same, uniform level. Of course, I'm exaggerating, it wouldn't go quite that far, but it would go in that direction. And it is that perception, that leads people to adopt what at first seems like inconsistent values.

Personal freedom has grown greatly within China, and that will provoke ever more points of conflict between the individual and state.